


Smells Like Teen Spirit

by elsalapizza (lamerezouille)



Series: SPN Fluff Bingo [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Blind Character, First Time, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Omega Dean Winchester, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 02:41:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16925013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/elsalapizza
Summary: At thirteen, Dean presents as a male omega in a universe where male omegas are very rare. The people of the small town he lives in don't handle it very well. Some even very seriously compare his situation to Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer's. Dean could have done without.





	Smells Like Teen Spirit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #spnadventcalendar2018 on tumblr. Day 9 prompt: "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"  
> Square #14 fill on my SPN fluff bingo card "a/b/o"  
> Titled after the eponymous Nirvana song  
> All my apologies if my depiction of blindness is completely horrendous. Don't hesitate to tell me and I'll make changes if I can.

Dean presented as an Omega a little more than a month before turning thirteen.

Thirteen was exactly the right age to be presenting. Not too early that you felt like your childhood was prematurely over, the only adult in a class full of kids who didn’t understand why you suddenly smelt like their dad; not too late that you felt like a baby amongst all your peers, locked out of the  not-so-select club of those in the know. No, thirteen was exactly the right age.

It was presenting as an omega when you were a boy that was not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

And more than being bad, presenting as a male omega was just completely unpractical. Because male omegas were so rare, the small town of Lawrence, Kansas where Dean lived had not only never seen one live, but had barely any documentation about them at all.

When you presented, there usually was an adult you trusted who could explain to you the specifics of what was gonna happen to you, from scents to ruts to mating. For Dean, it was the school nurse, who had very obviously no idea about anything at all. Her only words for Dean were that he was a bit like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. No one would really understand him for a while, but she was sure he would end up finding his place in the world and being more valuable than anyone else.

Dean got out of this meeting convinced of two things: someone definitely needed to start an inquiry about this woman’s degree and this reindeer thing was 100% coming from the advent calendar decorating her desk.

And Dean definitely did not want to be Rudolph the reindeer. Rudolph was the only reindeer anyone actually remembered, and his nose shined like a beacon through the night. All Dean wanted was to be left alone.

But Lawrence, Kansas was a small town, and Dean went in one day from a thirteen year-old kid no one had ever really heard from to “that omega boy”.

Dean hated this and Dean hated his life. Plus, the fact that no one actually knew shit about male omegas meant that everyone made it their fucking mission to make up as much as humanly possible. It was kinda expected; after all, having a male omega in their town might have been, for most of these folks, the most exciting thing that ever happened.

Except Dean was the one and only target for all this craziness, and Dean was only a thirteen year old boy. Dean hadn’t chosen to become a male omega and didn’t deserve any of this.

Dean didn’t deserve that some people would start whispering, “Can you smell him? I smell him! This is the weirdest scent I’ve ever smelt!” when he walked by. Dean didn’t deserve people he only knew in passing stopping him in the street and explaining to him their theory that male omegas could never mate and were destined to stay by themselves for ever. Dean didn’t deserve the fertility or lack thereof of male omegas being debated on the town’s one radio station.

And it all came back to was to the one reason everyone made stuff up about male omegas: the only documentation available in town was for female omegas, and anytime Dean could sneak up an internet search on the library computer, anything about male omegas was blocked by parent-control as it was considered porn. Dean had absolutely no way of knowing anything about himself and about what was in store for him in the future.

The only actual fact about himself Dean had access to, and that everybody seemed to agree on, was that Dean’s scent was absolutely repugnant. Depending on the person, it was either too heady or too acrid, too flowery or too stale, but what was sure was that it hadn’t been this way before Dean presented. Even Sam—though he would never admit it in front of Dean—could feel that Dean smelt off now.

Just like that, with one hormone released into his system, Dean’s life had turned into a complete nightmare.

The nightmare lasted for five terrible years.

Five years of unprepared-for heats, nonsensical restrictions and community-wide disdain, and Dean had vowed that it would not last one minute more.

He would regularly drive out-of-town, ever since he’d gotten his learner’s permit, to go buy stocks of scent-blockers, but now that he was of-age, Dean was driving away for good. He was devastated to leave Sammy, but determined to live in a place where he could regain at least some of his anonymity.

Drenched in scent-block and with a job at the greasiest joint around, Dean was living in a Big City now, and counted on garbage and pee and mostly people’s indifference to stay unnoticed. Some store clerks or bank staff would sometimes give him strange looks when it was the end of the day and Dean’s natural male-omega scent took over, but other than that, Dean’s strategy seemed to be somewhat working.

Dean had even managed to find some actual scientific information on himself thank to a queer group he was sometimes hanging out with. The few people there were the only ones who knew what he was, and they had not batted an eyelid when he’d told them. Between a couple of trans-kids, an alpha chick who was exclusively into alpha chicks and a middle-aged man who had never actually presented, he was hardly the most mind-blowing person they’d ever seen.

So now he knew that the stronger-than-usual scent was indeed a male omega thing. He also knew that in spite of it, male omegas—or at least the few whose existence had gone on record—were able to mate. Some of them had been able to carry babies, some not. The sample from which scientists got their data was still too small to get more info than that, and Dean couldn’t blame them. He himself was not in the mood to get dissected by some white coat.

At least he was reasonably sure none of the doctors he was susceptible to meet here would find that Rudolph the reindeer was an appropriate comparison to his messed-up biology.

He was still the only male-omega around though. None of his new friends had ever met one before either, and after a few years of living here, Dean had stopped looking. Even if he’d moved to the city, he was still in the Midwest after all, and if there were other people like him, they were no doubt trying to blend in as much as Dean was.

So Dean was living his life, working a service job he didn’t hate in a city he felt comfortable in. Sam had come to visit him a few times, and they talked on skype regularly. He had even stopped reacting when people noticed his scent in the street. It didn’t matter so much when you knew that there was little chance to ever cross path with them again.

And then one day, when Dean really had stopped expecting it a long time ago, some guy stopped him just outside of his building.

“Excuse me, sir?” a man asked, with a deep, gravelly voice.

Dean didn’t even think about it before turning towards him. “Yeah. D’you need help with—” Dean cut himself off. The man was actually pretty gorgeous, with features cut out from marble and biceps the size of Dean’s thighs; his scent was 100% alpha and made Dean want to melt into a puddle. The man also wore sunglasses on a gray winter day and held a white cane in his fist. Dean hesitated between being overly helpful to a beautiful blind guy, and trying to play it a bit cooler than that.

The guy went on before Dean had the time to choose though, “I’m sorry if I am being too forward, but I couldn’t help but pick up your scent, and I have to say I never smelt anything quite like it before.”

Dean froze. It was 8:30 in the morning. He’d just taken a shower and drenched himself in his usual scent-blockers. Having this random dude being able to smell him anyways made his whole body tense.

“Look, man. I don’t know you, but I can tell you I’m not interested in what you’re selling. Someone’s scent is personal, and you’re being a lot creepy,” Dean said sharply, hoping the guy wouldn’t prey on the uneasiness he was feeling.

“My apologies,” the man hurried on, and he sounded so sincere that Dean couldn’t help but hear him out. “I did not mean to perturb you. It’s only that, with my disability, I often get completely overwhelmed by the smells in the city, and encountering someone who stands out like you do feels exceptional. With winter and its black ice coming soon, it would be very helpful for me to have a scent to follow in the case my cane fails me, as it sometimes does in this weather…”

“What?” Dean said, as eloquently as ever. This had not gone in the direction he’d expected. Not at all. Was this man even aware that the scent he had waxed poetry about was a male omega’s?

“I am sorry. I am not making myself clear. I know you no doubt have a job to go to, but I was wondering if you would agree sometimes, only if you’re available of course, to help me getting around in the city during winter.”

Dean didn’t know what to say. How could this guy…this guy, who was potentially so vulnerable to assholes taking advantage of him because of his disability, how could this guy Dean had never met before, how could he trust Dean enough to ask him to put his life into his hands this way? Well maybe not his entire life—Dean may have a tendency to exaggerate when he was confused—but it was enough.

This dude might be the bravest man Dean had ever come across and he couldn’t help himself. Dean could see no other choice but to say yes.

So that’s how it started.

Just like that, with one random encounter in the street, Dean’s life had turned into a complete dream.

The guy’s name was Castiel, and for a few weeks, Dean met him twice a week to help him take care of errands. He was smart and unassumingly funny, and in way less time than he would like to admit, Dean became completely smitten.

Soon, it wasn’t twice a week but every day, and even when the black ice risks had gone by, there was always an excuse to hang out with Cas.

Then one day, Cas kissed him.

The first night they spent together, Dean didn’t put any scent-blockers at all, and he discovered how it was like to have sex with someone who could actually tell who he really was. He discovered what it was like to have sex with someone he felt could one day become his mate.

When they lay together afterwards, Cas told Dean that for him, Dean’s scent was a beacon in the dark, and that that first time they’d met, Cas had believed for one instant that he’d been able to see.

The memory of being compared to Rudolph the reindeer came back to Dean, unbidden. He would never change his mind about that school nurse being completely full of crap, but Dean couldn’t help but think that she’d inadvertently been right about him after all.

Because here in Cas’s arms, he did feel like he found his place in the world. And he was maybe not the most valuable being in existence, but he was valuable to Cas, and that was all that mattered.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr ♥](http://elsalapizza.tumblr.com/post/180960448000/fic-smells-like-teen-spirit)


End file.
